Carbon-fiber aerospace supplier plans north county plant

MARYSVILLE — A Boston-based aerospace company plans to locate a new manufacturing plant in the Arlington Marysville Manufacturing Industrial Center, bringing more than 70 jobs to the region. Web Industries, which specializes in carbon fiber for the aerospace and defense industries, will be the first sizable composite fabricator in the Seattle area, local officials said. The company’s composite products are used in the production of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and the wings of the new 777X. Web Industries is currently hauling some material cross-country in refrigerated trucks to fulfill local aerospace orders. Raw materials are trucked from a Tacoma firm, Toray Composite Materials America, for processing at a Web Industries plant in Georgia. The finished products are then shipped back to Washington. The new north Snohomish County plant would eliminate a step and the additional miles. The 84,000-square-foot facility will bring the company closer to Boeing and Washington’s aerospace cluster. The new plant will be right up the road from Boeing and other aerospace firms, officials with Web Industries said Wednesday. Web has signed a letter of intent with developer East Forty to purchase 12 acres of land in the industrial center on which to build the manufacturing plant. It will be Web’s ninth location. The company expects to break ground this spring. The facility is expected to begin operations in January 2021. Web Industries manufactures precision strips of composite material. “We take rolls of carbon fiber material and process it into spools of slit tape, which are used to create the wing skins and fuselage sections of airplanes, including the 787 and 777X,” said Blake Phillips, a company marketing specialist. At an airplane assembly plant, “the slit tape is wound around a mold in many different layers and cured in an autoclave,” Phillips said. Web Industries president and CEO Mark Pihl called the Pacific Northwest the largest aerospace manufacturing cluster in the world and noted that Washington has more than 1,400 aerospace-related companies and “a rapidly expanding ‘space’ cluster of high-growth enterprises.” “Our new (Marysville) plant investment has Web Industries perfectly located to grow right along with these businesses,” Pihl said in a news release. The new factory will include 75,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 9,000 square feet of refrigerated warehousing to store raw composite material before processing. The raw material needs to be kept at about minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure chemical stability. Patrick Pierce, president and CEO of Economic Alliance Snohomish County, said the company will be “the first sizable composites formatter in the Seattle area.” “We expect others to follow,” Pierce said. County officials have been talking with Web since 2014. Web’s presence will also broaden the regional supply chain, Pierce added. Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said he’s “delighted” to welcome Web Industries to the Arlington Marysville industrial center. “This investment adds 75 new jobs in Marysville and will undoubtedly attract other employers who value available land and infrastructure at a more affordable rate than that of most of Puget Sound,” Nehring said. Web Industries received a $150,000 grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce to support the new plant. “The company’s significant planned investments in Snohomish County are a tremendous addition to one of the most robust carbon fiber composite manufacturing clusters anywhere in the world,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a news release. Web also manufactures materials for the medical and home care industries. Janice Podsada; jpodsada@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3097; Twitter: JanicePods.